Overview of the O.T. Messianic references in the Gospelsby Robert Randle10/16/2009 / Bible Studies

The book of LUKE has more events than any of the other gospels but MATTHEW appears to be the source, especially Messianic prophesies from the Old Testament, which are included in the other narratives. The book of MATTHEW will be used in this study as the basis for comparison to see which Old Testament citations taken from there are listed in the other books. The numbering system is based upon MATTHEW with 1-34 separate prophesies, and the list increases from there.

LUKE has 17 references and 2 repeating twice (Isaiah 40: 3; Psalms 118: 26) and a single citation listed three times (Isaiah 53: 9); with 9/17 found in MATTHEW (52.9%) and 3/17 included in MARK (17.6%).

JOHN has 22 references and 2 repeating twice (Isaiah 44: 3; 55: 1), with 10/22 found in MATTHEW (45.5%), 1/22 in MARK (4.5%), and another 1/22 in LUKE, making it (4.5%), too.

COMMENTARY:
Not surprisingly, the gospel of JOHN has the greatest percentage of its prophetical material (45.5%) derived from sources other than MATTHEW; with one each found in MARK, and LUKE, as well as 10 other external references outside these. LUKE has the smallest degree of independent sources because MATTHEW and MARK comprise 70.5% of his prophetical references. MARK is in second place with a 62.9% dependence upon prophesies that are contained in MATTHEW'S gospel; but like JOHN, has 10 other independent citations not included in any of the other gospels. So then, in the entire combined Gospel narratives there are roughly 59 separate citations from the Old Testament Scriptures ("Tanakh").